Corona, education and Exams

 Corona  and Pakistan's  educational system and  exam

The global epidemic of corona virus has affected the world with its severe social and economic effects, but the devastation seen in the education sector does not seem to be reversible.

The global epidemic of covid  nineteen has exposed, among other issues, the flaws and weaknesses of the education system in developing countries like Pakistan. Due to this epidemic in Pakistan, lockdown has severely affected the educational careers of students.

Somewhere the exams are online, somewhere the classes are taking place in the virtual world classrooms instead of schools, colleges and universities. But the rate of continuing education online in Pakistan is very low. Most of the students just stayed at home during the lockdown.

It was announced by Government that all educational institutions would close and during this time, students will continue their education online from home.

It's like a pigeon closing its eyes when it sees a cat. The point is that when the infrastructure and prospects for online education in the country are not available to everyone, it is not difficult to estimate how many Pakistani students will benefit from shifting education from the real to the virtual world. 

The Pakistani constitution guarantees educational facilities for everyone. But if one looks at the inadequate supply of financial resources and the general situation of the education sector in the country, one can immediately assume that the education sector is like a stepchild for the government compared to other sectors.

The closure of educational institutions during the lockdown due to Corona may be an administrative obligation of the government in its place, but who can guarantee that the millions of Pakistani children and youth who are sitting at home will not suffer any educational loss?

If about one third of Pakistanis do not have access to internet, then how can they get education online? Forty percent of the country's mobile phone users say they do not know how to fully use their smartphones and the apps installed in them.

In the country aside, many citizens and students in Pakistan do not have a computer or a smartphone. So, in such a situation, how, for how long and how much will one be able to follow the possible path of online education for students.

The sudden emphasis on online education due to the epidemic of covid nineteen has also caused a difficult test for teachers. First of all, not everyone in the education sector in Pakistan has adequate technical infrastructure and even those who do, how well they perform their responsibilities in virtual classrooms without proper training and coaching.

Many countries do not agree with the closure of educational institutions in the country as the "best possible solution" to the problem. They are of the opinion that the best solution would have been to keep all the educational institutions in the country open for months rather than closing them down, but there would have been strict adherence to the Corona virus prevention SOPs by the teachers and students. Where this implementation appears to be flawed, institutions and individuals are fined.

Online education will be a fairly good alternative for students in Pakistan, not even in the light of the experience of the first wave of the epidemic. How will schoolchildren, who are constantly struggling to keep up with the classroom and persuade them to study wholeheartedly, study voluntarily and with great success at home?

Many parents themselves told me that they gave their mobile phones to their children for online classes after some days they kept playing video games on them. This problem is also not only of a few families with more children in Pakistan but also of a large number that such families have one or two smartphones but more children wanting online education at home. Psychologically, it has also been observed that children rarely ask questions in online classes. In addition, when the speed of the Internet becomes a problem, the voice of teachers does not reach the children.

In these circumstances, the fear is justified that if this situation continues, how will the children perform in the exams. If passed, with what kind of knowledge? If progress in the next grade happens automatically without exams, it will be a compromise on the children's academic ability.